Monday, October 5, 2009

Chewy Crunchy

The other mornin' as I was strolling through Food Fight on one of my regular jaunts with good ol' Vee, I noticed Primal Strips has two flavors that have recently been reformulated to be XgfX (they switched out a wheaty soy sauce, for one without). I was really glad to chomp one, since the chewy is something that I greatly enjoy and don't find often these day (soy curls are yummy, but not super chewy the way seitan can be).Top Row L-R: hot & spicy shiitake, xgfx hickory smoked soy and teriyaki seitan.Bottom Row L-R: mesquite lime seitan, XgfX Texas BBQ soy and Thai peanut seitan.When I got home, I picked a few strands of jerky from my front molar, then wrote to thank the company for being so awesome. I also asked them to please send me a free box of Primals to give away during The MoFo. They happily obliged me with a package filled up with six different kinds: XgfX, seitan, and mushroom varieties! My sharing plan is to give one away everyday I post, until the party runs dry. If you want one, lemme know in a comment, and dazee'll be my daily random generator (please make sure your comment contains a link or an email so I can track you down). Also, I want to save the gluten-free varieties for the gluten-free'rs, so please make yourself known when you comment--unless you are just dying for a gluten free flavor--no unhappy vegans during MoFo!

In other successful Monday news containing no wheat. I was recently loaned a galley copy of Flying Apron's Gluten-Free & Vegan Baking Book (soon to be released). I didn't have much hope for the book, since 1. I have a bad attitude about baking without wheat, and 2. I have a bad attitude about baking with xanthan gum, and 3. I have a bad attitude in general and 4. I felt personally burned by Babycakes.Raspberry Cinnamon Scones, made with brown rice and garbanzo bean flours.

Scrounging through with wrinkled brow, I found a recipe for Blueberry Cinnamon Scones, which looked slightly promising. Since I had all the ingredients at hand and because the recipe calls for zero evil powder, I risked it. I swapped the blueberries for some really gorgeous and super-tasty-delicious golden raspberries we had stowed in the freezer, and the results were surprisingly good. Not exclamation point great, but still quite enjoyable. I know you can't see the berries in the picture, but their raspberry flavor is really bright.

OOH I would love a jerky sample! I also felt personally burned by Babycakes. Especially after tons of peeps were obviously having issues with the recipes, and their response was "UM OBVS U DONT KNOW HOW TO BAKE FOOLS ROFL." Pretty lame! We're cutting back on gluten in our house and we have a celiac friend to feed, so yeah. GF FTW.

I was just at Flying Apron on Saturday and sampled the chocolate chip peanut butter cookies which I happen to really like. I also tried the personal pizza which was pleasant enough but not something you'd use to prove to someone that vegan gluten-free baking is really good, if you know what I mean.

Xanthan gum is unappealing to me, too, ever since I read a description of it on Wikipedia. The one good thing about it as far as I can tell is you need very little to create the desired effect.

I am a bit obsessed with primal strips but their newer packaging makes them even harder to open!!! I always have to use my teeth and then the p-strip usually flies out of the wrapper and onto the ground. It's so nice of you to give them away this month. You don't have to enter me in the contest because I live so close to Food Fight, but hooray for tasty snacks!!

I also shy away from gluten free baking, but I've just found out that I should try to cut out wheat for a thyroid condition. I'm fighting it, but I feel like it's going to eventually happen. Your xantham gum rant made me so happy! And hearing there are things like gluten free primal strips makes me realize it might not be as hard as I'm thinking it will be...

Ahem. Anyway, that's so exciting that the Flying Apron is coming out with a book - I had no idea - because it is one of my absolute favorite bakeries in Seattle. I rarely make it up there... but their sweets are spirit-inducing. I want that scone pretty bad.